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AT&T blames 'hackers' for iPad security breach

Apple 3G iPad owners heard directly from AT&T in an e-mail Sunday evening about last week's security breach that exposed the e-mail addresses of iPad users.

AT&T places the blame squarely on "unauthorized computer 'hackers," in a letter obtained by the New York Times.

Last week, a group known as Goatse Security revealed it had used a program on the AT&T Web site to expose 114,000 e-mail addresses of iPad users.

Dorothy Attwood, a senior vice president and chief privacy officer at AT&T, apologized to users and accused Goatse Security of making the breach "for their own publicity."

Goatse has fired back, arguing that it only exploited a weakness in AT&T's system to warn users that their private information was vulnerable. Goatse said that anyone, without using a password, could have obtained the information. In a blog post, Goatse Security wrote:

When we disclosed this, we did it as a service to our nation. We love America and the idea of the Russians or Chinese being able to subvert American infrastructure is a nightmare. We understand that good deeds many times go punished, and AT&T is trying to crucify us over this.

So, who will customers blame: AT&T for allowing the security hole to exist in the first place--or the hackers for revealing it?

Sorry to double post, but it should be obvious at this point which attacks like this come from the chan community. The group name and the blog post make it more than obvious; and not to take any credit away from Ms. Kang's article, but reports on any attacks from this community only bait them on to continue this type of activity; trolls love attention.